SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - The manner in which live Nativity scenes were presented during an Indiana school district’s annual holiday pageant for decades violated the U.S. Constitution and cannot be repeated, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Jon DeGuilio ruled Monday that Concord Community Schools’ 2014 holiday show and its originally planned 2015 show violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which bars governmental entities or schools from endorsing religion or forcing people to take part in religious activities.
DeGuilio wrote that the Nativity scenes the district presented in the first 45 years of its annual “Christmas Spectacular” at Elkhart’s Concord High School created “an impermissible message” of religious endorsement.
The district switched in 2015 to using mannequins to depict the Nativity scene during its holiday show, and for the first time included music and readings about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, The Elkhart Truth reported. The changes came months after the Freedom From Religion Foundation sued the district, arguing that the holiday program staged and funded by a public school corporation was an endorsement of Christianity.
Students had previously portrayed Mary, Joseph, angels and the three wise men in the Nativity scenes that closed the show, as school staff read passages from the New Testament.
Monday’s ruling means that the especially religious imagery and content previously included in the district’s show will not be allowed.
The Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation hailed the judge’s ruling.
“This was a clear-cut case of a school district imposing Christianity on the student body,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, the group’s co-president, said in a statement.
DeGuilio ruled in September that the holiday pageant eventually performed in 2015 with the mannequins and less Christian imagery, and a similar 2016 show, did not specifically endorse Christianity because they were educational in nature.
Those shows included performances of songs like “White Christmas,” a Hanukkah song and a traditional African song for Kwanzaa.
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Information from: The Elkhart Truth, https://www.elkharttruth.com
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